Ronald Kers, the recently-appointed CEO of UK-based 2 Sisters Food Group, has announced a transformation plan for the company.
The group intends to merge some poultry operations in order to streamline its operations and improve its profitability.
A Busy Year
The company has had a challenging year, with a TV investigation last October revealing alleged breaches of food safety at one of its facilities in the West Midlands.
In early 2018, the company had to close down three underperforming plants and Moody's downgraded Boparan Holdings, 2 Sisters parent company.
Most recently the company went through a change at the top, with former global CEO of dairy heavyweight Müller Ronald Kers named after longstanding chief executive Ranjit Singh Boparan stepped down.
Kers officially took the reigns as new CEO on August 1, and has laid out a plan which includes the introduction of a transformation team, some organisational changes and the merger of of its UK Poultry and Added Value divisions.
Capitalise On Trends
Kers highlighted health and private label as two major sources of growth for the company, “2 Sisters can capitalise on global trends that can take us to the next level. Poultry is a growth market so fundamentally attractive. Consumers are also increasingly looking for healthy, convenient and affordable food, and both our poultry and our non-poultry businesses deliver this.
“The rise of ‘retailer own brands’ is another big opportunity. These are becoming the biggest brand in the world and if we can use our scale and expertise, we can stay ahead of our competitors and succeed in the longer term.”
Among the changes, the group's technical director, Chris Gilbert-Wood will retire and is to be replaced by Greencore's group technical director Helen Sisson. The group's commercial director, Frank Robinson will be replaced by Dan Howell, who, like Kers, is an ex-Müller executive.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Matthieu Chassain. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine
